I wonder if those who believe in an afterlife would choose to commit suicide more often than those who assume death to be final?
I’m thinking that people who commit suicide do so in anticipation of glorious things to come.
Thoughts?
Factor in all those religions that have rules against suicide. Very sensible on their part, as increased suicides would result in reduced numbers for that religion on this side of the great divide, as well as making proselytizing problematical.
This is just speculation on my part, of course, but I suspect that there would not be a noticeable difference.
Then I did a cursory search through Google and came up with this study which may bear on your question (I was too bored to read it). What I did get from skimming is that active religious cultures seem to have a lower incidence of suicide than less actively-religious cultures. For what it is worth.
Roddy
I think it could go either way. I’m not aware of any studies suggesting anything one way or another (admittedly, I haven’t looked very hard).
On the one hand, I can see your reasoning. Atheists think that this world is all there is; there is no paradise to “go home to” when one dies, so it’s best to get as much out of life as possible. Thus, lower suicide rates.
On the other hand, many religions believe that killing oneself is sinful or wrong in some sense. Adherents to these religions are often taught that there is some divine purpose to suffering, and that they will be rewarded in the afterlife for enduring it (think Job in the Old Testament). Suicide is seen as a rejection of this plan and subverting the will of God, which is that we suffer for a higher purpose. As punishment, people who commit suicide are consigned to hell, or, at least are not rewarded as much as those who toughed it out. From that perspective, I could see suicides among religious people as less prevalent. Of course, one would have to specify just what religion one is talking about. I don’t think all of the major ones hold that suicide is sinful.
Your question reminded me of a recurring question of my own. In the U. S. at least, many hospitals are (to varying degrees) affiliated with religious denominations. I was born at Presbyterian Hospital, for example, and a major hospital in my neck of the woods named Covenant is associated with the Catholic Church. But it seems that, given a choice, a typical person would want to be treated in a secular setting and by people who were atheists, since they would presumably be more motivated to keep someone alive since this life is all there is.
ETA: Just saw Roddy’s post
Or they prefer oblivion to whatever suffering they’re going through.
According to the study mentioned here, religion contributes “towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide”
IIRC that was why it became a major sin in Christianity; it spread misery and guilt in real life while promising paradise after death, and was as a result suffering from huge suicide rates.
Exactly. That’s what I felt at times. Fortunately, my religion, even in when I’m having the most doubts, is enough to make me think I may be ending one hellish torment to get to another one. And at least my current torment will eventually end.
I would think that religious people would be less likely to commit suicide. Not only do they have a higher power that they believe can make thing better for them, but they also have strong support systems in their churches. A group of people who care about you goes a long way for a depressed person.
FWIW I’m an atheist.
They are also often being told that they are an awful person, that any problems they have are because of their own sinfulness, that pleasure of any kind is evil, and that life in general is about suffering.
I’ve known a couple people that told me they would have committed suicide had it not been an automatic ticket to Hell. I’d have to say people that believe in Hell are less likely to suicide than somebody that thinks their suffering will be over.
In university I took a religious study course on sects, cults, and new religious movements. I remember part of the general stats re: religion was that suicide rates were slightly lower for people who actively participated in moderate religious activities due to community involvement.
The flip side to that is as Der Trihs’s article mentions is that problems arise when religion is a dominant/controlling and impacts social/emotional/cultural freedoms. Telling horny teenagers don’t touch, telling gays they are doomed for all eternity, telling a woman she is a slut unless her face is covered and she may not leave the house unless accompanied by a male family member, and so on.
<Edit: This paragraph is IMHO.> So moderate religious activities, “Yay, we’re making sandwiches for the homeless after Sunday school!” = lower suicide rate. But more oppressive religious participation “This is a pretty lipstick, but my church says I should be stoned to death for wearing make-up.” can ultimately have negative social consequences.
<Edit: anecdote> I knew a Russian immigrant, teenaged girl. The oppressiveness of her family’s religion made her totally miserable and despondent. She quite literally was taught “Women with painted faces should be stoned to death.” which is why she was forbidden to wear make-up or hang out with other girls from school who did. She started feeling socially isolated and became suicidal, but said she could never act on her thoughts of suicide for fear of eternal damnation. So her religion kept her from killing herself, but was also the reason she wanted to die in the first place.
Flippling this around, it might be a fair hypothesis to say that depressed aetheists might be more prone simply becuase they don’t see a point or disincentive not to.
Or as Alphaboi said, “glorious things to come” is simply a relative term for “a better state of being/unbeing than the current state” that applies to theists and atheists alike.
I think y’all might be missing the point: people who are suicidally depressed are not rational. From accounts I’ve read and seen, people tend to lose all perspective, and focus solely on ending their intolerable suffering. Not that where you think you’d go is entirely out of the picture, but you do have to remember that most people who kill themselves are insane, and that doesn’t lend itself to a detached cost-benefit analysis.
Now, I imagine that people who are part of a dependable, supportive, loving community are less likely to become suicidally depressed. So people in robust, but not terribly nutty and guilt-inducing, religions probably would have a lower rate of suicide, just due to positive social support.
That said, I have a friend who’s an Evangelical Christian, who has post-partum psychosis and has been suffering suicidal ideation. And one of the the tools she’s using to fight it is reminding herself that she’ll go to hell if she kills herself. So obviously it can be a factor.
You honestly cannot believe this. No church outside the most fringe cults are like that. Even the most conservative, fundamentalist churches are generally supportive social communities and “life is about suffering” is not part of any Christian doctrine I am familiar with.
There are also studies showing that the research mentioned in the link in the post by Der Trihs (which is a paper by Gregory S. Paul) is badly done and doesn’t prove what it claims to prove. It appears that there is no general scientific agreement about whether Paul has proven anything. Does anyone know of any recent studies that re-examine the issue more thoroughly?
I googled ‘suicide statistics by religion’ and hit this site. I don’t have the time, or inclination, to dig into their bona fides, but they make it sound like there isn’t much hard data.
Sadly, I think **Der **really does believe this. Explains a lot, really.
No, I think my comment is an accurate description of what the vast majority of Christians have believed throughout history. Although much of Christianity has lightened up considerably in the last few generations* and now prefers to pretend it was never like that. And I think you are grossly underestimating the size and dominance of what you call “fringe cults”.
- Partly because it can no longer impose itself by force as easily, and partly because modern capitalist society encourages self indulgence not self flagellation and self deprivation. Capitalism isn’t all bad.
I wouldn’t think so, really. I imagine that once you’ve had it, you’ve had it.
I read someplace that the happiest people are atheists and very religious people. It’s the ones who aren’t sure who are less happy. (If that has anything to do with it.)
If religious people slightly higher rate of suicide (I don’t think they do but I have no evidence one way or the other), could it be that people who are thinking of suicide will sometimes go to a church to help them defeat these thoughts? Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t. But they could be drawing from a pool of more potential suicides than others.